


In Hot Water

by JerseyGirl



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Declarations Of Love, Episode s01e18: Loa Aloha (The Long Goodbye), Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, First Kiss, First Time, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Hand Jobs, Hot Tub, Kissing, M/M, Male Friendship, Sex, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-29
Updated: 2012-07-30
Packaged: 2017-11-11 00:18:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/472340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JerseyGirl/pseuds/JerseyGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the aftermath of Danny learning his brother's a criminal, and then letting him leave Hawaii, Danny decides he needs to tell his folks in person what happened. At the last minute, Steve decides he's coming along whether Danny likes it or not.</p>
<p>Happens just after the Season 1 episode "Loa Aloha."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Off to Jersey

**Author's Note:**

> It'll get more steamy after the first chapter, I promise. Steamy. Hot water. Ha! I made a funny.

Really, it was a no-brainer that this was going to be a bitch. 

‘This’ being Danny having to explain the actions of one Matthew Williams to his parents. 

Steve sighed as he pulled up in the passenger drop-off zone of Honolulu International. “Danno, I really wish you would let me go with you,” is what he said in the seconds after the sigh. 

“Why, so Mom and Pop can blame you, too?” 

They’d had this argument…discussion…verbal sparring match…umpteen times in the last few days, ever since Danny had decided he had to do this in person rather than over the phone. No way, no how, did his partner want him along, and Steve wasn’t sure whether to be insulted because Danny didn’t think he could handle being there for his best friend, or relieved because Steve wasn’t sure he could _handle_ an entire upset Williams clan. 

Now it was Danny’s turn to sigh. His hand was on the latch that would open the Camaro’s passenger door. His bag was on the seat directly behind him. But Danny didn’t move. Steve put the car in Park, took his hands off the wheel and turned his body as much as he could in the tight fit his legs forced on him. 

Danny didn’t look at him. But he didn’t make a move to get out, either. “Dammit,” he breathed, hand coming off the door, thumb and forefinger digging hard into his eye sockets. When his hand came away and he blinked his eyelids open, the result was that his eyes were bloodshot. 

Steve suspected Danny had done his fair share of shedding tears since Matt’s departure, but he knew better than to ask whether it was so. “I’ll stay out of the way,” he offered in one last, desperate attempt to not let his partner go through this hell alone. “I’ll stay in a hotel; they won’t even have to know I came with you.” 

This got Steve Danny’s full-faced attention. “Why wouldn’t you want them to know you were there?” 

Steve half-shrugged. “It’s not that. It’s just…I’m trying to figure out why you don’t want me to come along, and offer solutions for whatever those reasons might be, is all.” There. Truth always worked wonders. Well, most of the time. 

Danny shook his head, a wry smile on his face. “Babe, if you came with me to do this, I wouldn’t be hiding you in some hotel,” he said. 

Steve cocked his head, a little smile on his face. “Yeah?” 

“Yeah,” Danny confirmed, then looked down at his hands. “Shit.” 

“That’s it,” Steve said, coming to a decision. He turned back to face front, put the car in Drive, checked his side mirror and pulled out into the busy airport traffic. 

“What? What’s it? Where are you going?” 

“With you. And I’m not taking no for an answer, Danno. Not this time. I don’t care if you think you need me there or not. I’m coming.” Firm. Decisive. Same way he’d pulled Danny into Five-0, come to think of it. 

So there. 

“Fine,” Danny acquiesced and Steve was so surprised at the immediate capitulation that he almost missed the turn-in for the parking garage. “Assuming they have an open seat.” 

“They’ll have one. I’m the head of the state’s task force. They’ll _make_ one.” 

“You just love throwing your weight around, don’t you,” Danny stated as a matter of fact more than as a question. 

“If it gets me what I want, then yes,” Steve confirmed as he took the ticket from the parking gate, shoved it onto the car’s dashboard and sped off to find a spot. 

“You’re impossible,” Danny replied. “You don’t even have an overnight bag.” 

Steve shrugged. He found a spot, pulled in, cut the engine. “I’ll just buy whatever I need. You can show me your famous Jersey malls.” 

“You want me to take you to a _mall_? Are you insane?” 

Steve winked and grinned as he unlocked the car doors. “According to you? Yep. Come on.” 

And so they were on their way. Steve sent a quick text to Chin telling him what was going on, asking him to hold down the fort and telling him they’d be back in a week, provided the stifling smog-filled New Jersey air didn’t permanently damage his lungs. 

Chin LOL’d back through the text, told him _Good luck, brah._ And then, as an afterthought, _also, good decision._

Steve smiled as he stepped up to the United Airlines counter. “I need to be on the same flight as my partner,” he said as Danny pulled out his e-ticket and handed it over. 

“I’m sorry, sir, but that flight is over-sold as it is.” 

“To Newark?” Steve asked incredulously. “That many people go from here to Jersey?” 

The counter attendant grinned even as Danny clucked his dismay at Steve’s continual dissing of New Jersey. “Actually, you’d be surprised.” 

“Ha,” Danny said. 

Steve scowled, pulled out his badge. “It’s official business. I’ll take the jumpseat if I have to,” he said to the short Hawaiian woman as he shoved his badge across the counter. 

“Oh!” she exclaimed, color rising up her face. “Commander McGarrett, of course, I apologize. I’ll have it all arranged in just a moment.” 

Steve glanced down at Danny, who rolled his eyes, and Steve knew he had a nice, smug grin on his face. “Thank you,” he said, turning his smile back to the attendant. 

“My God,” Danny groused five minutes later after he and Steve had been given new tickets and boarding passes that listed them as official travelers for the State of Hawaii and gave them seats in First Class – much to the dismay of two men dressed in suits who were, at this very moment, being told they’d been bumped. “Do you _always_ get what you want?” 

The question caught Steve off-guard. “Not always,” he replied, then saw Danny’s look. “What?” 

“There’s something hiding in that two-word response,” Danny said as he plopped down into a chair near their gate. “But I’m too tired to figure it out right now.” 

“Relax, Danno,” Steve told him as he settled in the chair between Danny and a little toddler whose hands were a mess from whatever strange ice cream concoction she was currently trying to eat. “This time, I’ve got _your_ back.” 

He knew Danny was looking sideways at him, but concentrated instead on scanning the gate and what he could see of the terminal with military-like precision. It never hurt to be prepared just in case some weirdo got through Security. It also was a good excuse to not be confronted with Danny’s questioning eyes, which Steve could see well enough out of his peripheral vision. 

When at last Danny looked away, pretending to study his ticket and boarding pass, Steve relaxed a fraction. He was going to do this. He was going to see Danny through this tough time. He was even going to meet Danny’s family, whom he’d heard so much about. 

He wasn’t really looking forward to the family angst. 

At all. 

But he was looking forward to seeing Danny in his natural element. He suspected that maybe the reason Danny hadn’t wanted him to come along was because he didn’t _want_ Steve to see him there for some reason. 

It didn’t matter now, though. Because they were going. Together. Steve elbowed his partner, who elbowed him right back. 

“Goof,” Danny said fondly. 

“Bigger goof,” Steve replied. 

This time, their eyes _did_ meet. 

And held. 

It was only the boarding call for their flight that made them look away. 

* * *

Being that it was ten o’clock at night, and the Williamses didn’t even know their boy was coming, let alone their boy and his partner, Danny decided the best thing to do was check into a nearby hotel. So he did that while Steve took their rental car down the street a ways to a 24-hour Wal-Mart to get enough clothing for a few days. 

“Wal-Mart,” Danny had said. “You’re going to Wal-Mart for clothes.” 

“Where else do you think I get my shirts?” 

“Cargo pants, too?” 

“Special order online, so shit outta luck there.” 

“Oh, my God, you’re going to be wearing something other than _cargo_ pants?” Danny spluttered, feigning horror. “I may never recover.” 

“Oh, I think you’ll recover _just_ fine,” Steve replied with a smirk as he pulled away from the front circular drive of the…Holiday Inn. 

Holiday Inn. Steve wasn’t sure he’d ever stayed in a Holiday Inn. Ah, well, new experiences all the way around, seeing how he’d never been to Jersey, either. 

Newark was…dirty. Smoggy. The people drove like they were insane. Steve was surprised that he made the two-mile drive to and from the Wal-Mart in one piece. He was also quite pleased with what he’d found, and had rather enjoyed the ogling looks from the cashier whose line he’d graced with his presence. But now it was back to the hotel, back to find out what kind of room Danny had managed to get for him and back to plan Danny’s next day, when he showed up at his mother and father’s door, said, “Surprise!” and then proceeded to tell them the worst shit he could possibly have come to tell them. 

Steve hated family crap. He really did. 

But he loved Danny, so he’d deal. 

His foot slammed on the brake as he came to a stop in the middle of the Holiday Inn’s parking lot. 

He _what_?!?!?! 

“Oh, crud,” he murmured, squeezing his eyes shut until another impatient guest honked their rental car’s horn at him. He swiftly pulled into the nearest open space, ignored the one-finger salute from the other driver, and put the car in Park. “Man,” he breathed as he shut the car off. “Oh, man, oh, man.” 

Nothing like figuring something really good out at the worst possible time. Steve concluded, as he grabbed his bags from the trunk and proceeded toward the front entrance of the hotel, that he had the worst timing _ever_. 

Like… _ever_. 

He walked up to the front desk. “I believe my partner reserved a room for me,” he said to the young man in the grayish vest and long-sleeved button-down white shirt standing there. “McGarrett? Or maybe Williams.” 

The young man tapped on his keyboard a few times, then nodded, grabbed a small envelope off the counter and handed it over. “Yes, sir, this is your key to the suite.” 

“Suite?” Steve asked. “He got a suite for me?” 

“For the two of you, sir, yes,” the man replied. 

Steve made a questioning face but thought it was probably one of those two-bedroom deals and thought okay, that’s pretty cool. “Thank you,” he said. 

“No problem. Elevators are to my right, tenth floor.” 

Steve nodded and headed for the bank of elevators. 

He pushed the button marked 10. 

He rode up. 

The doors swished open. He looked at the envelope in his hand. Room 1038. He looked up at the signs in the hall, and went to the right. When he reached the door for 1038, he slid the key card from the envelope, opened the door and was surprised to find the room very, very dark. 

He was also surprised to smell chlorine, and to hear something that sounded vaguely like bubbling, gurgling water. 

“Danno?” 

“Yeah, in here.” 

Steve frowned, walked in, made sure to lock the door behind him, and moved past the bathroom and into the large room. It was about twice the size of his own bedroom. He came to a screeching halt when he walked by where his partner’s voice had come from, which also happened to be the place the chlorine smell and the bubbling, gurgling sounds were coming from. 

“Is that…are you in a _hot_ tub?” Steve asked incredulously, placing his bags on the nearest of two beds. 

“That’s my bed, Steven, move your shit. And yes, Commander Obvious, I _am_ in a hot tub. I got this suite because it _has_ a hot tub. I wanted a hot tub because I need to relax. From the sound of things, _you_ need to relax too, so get in here.” 

“I, uh…didn’t bring my trunks,” Steve said, turning and looking, letting his eyes adjust to the relative darkness, lit only by a faint glow coming from around the curtains over the windows at the far end of the room. 

“Neither did I, so what? Get in.” 

Steve swallowed. 

Danny was sitting in the hot tub naked? 

He wanted Steve to join him? 

Naked? 

Well, shit. Steve wasn’t going to argue with that. Not after his tiny little epiphany out in the parking lot. 

Then why’d he feel so nervous as he pulled his shirt off over his head? 

“I knew you couldn’t resist an opportunity to get shirtless again.” 

“Getting a lot more than shirtless here, Danno.” 

“Who cares, it’s just us.” 

Who cares, he said. _I care_ , Steve thought, untying his boots and pulling them off. Socks were next. He unbuttoned his cargo pants fly. Shoved the pants down and pulled them off one leg at a time. He was in his briefs. He stopped, looked at Danny. 

“Ew, not in your underwear, have you no sense of common courtesy?” 

“It’s more courteous to get into a hot tub with my partner naked?” Steve asked in disbelief. 

“Yup,” was Danny’s succinct reply and damn, Steve couldn’t see his face well enough to know what kind of look he was getting. Talk about flying blind. 

“Fine,” Steve said and in one swift move, his underwear was off and thrown into the pile with the rest of his dirty clothes. “When in Jersey…” 

Danny chuckled as Steve climbed carefully into the small hot tub that wasn’t even wide enough for Steve to stretch his legs out in. Danny seemed to notice. “Sometimes it’s nice having shorter legs,” he said as he nudged his feet under Steve’s knees. “Now just relax.” 

“Isn’t that what I’m here to help _you_ do?” Steve asked, legs and the rest of him tingling from the contact. 

“Yeah, so start doing,” Danny said. 

“Bossy,” Steve muttered. By now he could see well enough to note that Danny was smirking at him. 

“You’re only just now realizing this?” 

Steve chose to ignore him and instead sank down so that his shoulders were covered by the hot, churning water. This had the effect of his ass settling quite nicely against Danny’s thigh and knee. 

“Any idea how you’re going to handle tomorrow?” Steve asked after a few moments of comfortable silence. Or _un_ comfortable, since all he’d been able to think about was his bare ass touching Danny’s leg. 

“I’m not thinking about tomorrow yet. It’s still fifty-four minutes away,” Danny replied. 

Steve opened his eyes and looked at Danny. “Okay,” he said, only then realizing that Danny was staring at him. “What?” 

“Thanks.” 

“For being here? I tried for days to convince you to let me come along and you didn’t want me to.” 

“I know.” 

“Why?” 

“What?” 

“Why didn’t you want me to come along?” 

Danny looked down. He pulled his legs away, knees rising. Steve suddenly felt bereft at the loss of contact. “I don’t know,” he finally said. 

“Danny, we’re sitting naked together in a hot tub barely big enough to fit a munchkin. Why did you fight me so hard?” 

A few long seconds, then Danny looked up. 

And Steve knew the answer without his partner needing to say a word. 

His heart started to pound. 

This time, there was no airline announcement to tear their eyes from each other’s. 

There was no clothing separating everything that they were from each other. 

There was nothing but very hot water, very nice-feeling jets of it shooting into their bodies from all angles, and two pairs of eyes that didn’t seem to want to look away. 

“Danno?” Steve whispered, mesmerized by the sounds of the hot tub and the eyes he knew were blue, but which looked so dark in their very dark room. 

But Danny didn’t say a thing. Instead, he scooted sideways, around the perimeter of the hot tub, until he was so close there was barely an inch separating them from each other. 

Their gaze never broke. 

And Steve knew without a doubt that he was either about to kiss his partner for the first time, or have a coronary event that would end his Naval career in thirty seconds flat. 

“Steve,” Danny finally whispered. 

And Steve made his move. 


	2. Love of His Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny has doubts. Steve tries to reassure him. Hot tub sex alert!

In that last nanosecond, just as their lips were about to meet, Danny whispered, "This was why I didn't want you to come."

Steve stopped. Opened his eyes. Moved his head back a bit. Watched Danny open _his_ eyes. And then Danny started to look away. "Oh, no, you don't," Steve said, raising his hands and placing them on either side of Danny's head to hold it in place. "You could've avoided this by getting us separate rooms," he continued. "You didn't want this, you shouldn't have gotten a single room and been waiting naked in the dark in the hot tub, and then tell me to get naked and join you, Danno."

Danny swallowed, but to his credit his eyes never left Steve's. "I know. I tend to…sabotage…my own best intentions."

Steve smiled a little, tiny smile. "How long've you been trying _not_ to?" he asked, voice low, gruff, as hormones surged through his body. Danny tried to turn his head away again, but Steve held him firmly. "How long, Danny?" He didn't know why, but it was important.

Maybe because he just wanted to be sure this wasn't an I-need-to-feel-better thing about to happen between them.

Danny sighed. "Months," he admitted, and Steve bet that if it wasn't so dark in the room, he'd be seeing color flushing Danny's face.

"Good," was Steve's only reply, before closing the gap between them and pressing his lips firmly against Danny's.

Danny moaned, hands coming up from the water, heated palms resting on Steve's biceps. Steve turned his head just a little, angling in to better fit their mouths together, his own hands sliding down the sides of Danny's neck to his shoulders. He pulled away just long enough to say, "I couldn't have sabotaged anything better myself," before moving back in, this time with his tongue demanding entrance to Danny's mouth.

And Danny's mouth opened, but only because he was laughing in response. Steve took full advantage.

He plunged his tongue into Danny's mouth. Suddenly, Danny wasn't laughing anymore. He was moaning, his fingernails digging into Steve's skin, and Steve felt his cock grow hard as a rock by way of answering. Jesus _fuck_ , how had he not realized he wanted this man so much until this very moment when it threatened to short out his circuits with overwhelming desire?

The kiss grew deeper still, only this time Danny was fighting back, shoving at Steve's tongue, pushing against him like he always did, giving as good as he was getting. Steve thought nothing had ever felt so good as this right here, where he had Danny wanting, willing, waiting to be taken.

And Danny _was_ willing. Oh, boy, was he ever.

He moved slowly enough that the kiss never stopped, yet wound up straddling Steve's thighs, making it perfectly obvious that his own cock was just as hard as Steve's as it pressed into Steve's abs. The feel of it, knowing how turned on his partner was, leaning back against the side of the tub as Danny launched an all-out assault on Steve's mouth, it made _Steve_ groan this time, a sound that came from deep in his gut.

Steve rocked his hips, sweet friction in too-hot water and they whimpered together, parted, held each other's eyes. Both panting. Both needing. "Danny," Steve breathed, nosing into the damp skin of Danny's neck, tongue snaking out to gather the moisture, lick it away. Danny threw his head back, arms wrapped tightly around Steve's neck, urging him to press harder, harder. So Steve nipped at the skin. Danny gasped. Steve repeated the motion and Danny moaned so long and low that Steve's cock twitched hard where it rested against Danny's.

"Want you so bad," Danny breathed.

"Mmmmm," Steve coherently replied as he continued licking, nipping, tasting Danny's skin. Down his neck, along his collarbone, licking a stripe from the hollow of his throat to his chin, back down again, along his right collarbone now, up to his shoulder where he stopped and let his teeth sink in.

Not enough to break skin. But enough to elicit a breathless " _Fuck!_ " from his partner. "Animal," he murmured as Steve licked the teethmarks he'd left behind. He smiled, hands moving up behind Danny's head to tilt it forward. "Steve, _God_ ," Danny's gravelly voice managed to get out before Steve silenced him with another kiss.

Danny scooted even closer, knees resting on the narrow bench either side of Steve's hips. He thrust forward, nearly impaling Steve right through his stomach. Steve gasped, hands whipping down to Danny's ass and squeezing so hard it made Danny tremble. High-pitched keening sounds as Steve's fingers inched closer and closer to Danny's tight, puckered hole, gently parting his cheeks as he did. When at last a finger made contact, Danny nearly leapt straight off his lap.

"Want me inside you?" Steve asked as he pulled away from Danny's mouth. "Want me buried in your body, laying my claim on you?" God, he felt heady from the surge of power his own words brought forth.

"Fuck, it's…yes…God…please, Steve…" Needy, begging, Steve felt his power over Danny's body grow, tempered by his love.

His love.

"Next time," Steve promised, sliding the palms of his hands up Danny's hot, wet back, all the way to his armpits. Then he reached up and carded through Danny's hair. "Always wanted to do that," he said fondly.

" _Next_ time?" Danny whined, yes, _whined_ , and Steve chuckled, reaching down between them to fist their cocks together in one hand. Danny didn't ask any more questions after he slowly started pumping them together.

"Won't hold out that long," Steve answered, mouth returning to Danny's swollen lips, licking them, sucking his lower lip into his mouth as Danny's hands went everywhere they could reach. As though he wanted to touch all of Steve now, like he couldn't wait to do it, or…maybe like he thought he wouldn't have another chance.

Like maybe Steve would regret this once they were through.

"You and me," Steve said, by way of trying to calm Danny's worries. Danny always worried. Always. Now he had to worry about Matt, about their family. So Steve wasn't going to be yet another thing for Danny to worry about. Not where they were concerned, this new 'they' that they were forging.

"Hnnngghh," Danny garbled, head falling forward until his and Steve's foreheads rested against each other.

"Just you and me, nobody else."

Danny gripped his shoulders, squeezing, like he was trying to hold on tight as he could to keep Steve in place.

"Not going anywhere," Steve assured him. "Not now, not after. Never."

Danny pulled his head back to look directly into Steve's eyes. Was that disbelief Steve saw in the darkness? He couldn't be sure. So he cupped Danny's face in his hands. "Never," he repeated.

And Danny must have believed him at last, because he surged forward, claiming Steve's mouth like he was planting a flag on a new planet, thrusting his hips so hard it was almost painful and yet _fuck_ with the water jets shooting at them from all angles it felt so goddamn _good_.

"God, _Danny_ , yessssss," Steve hissed when Danny let him breathe for half a second. He reached down between them again, hand wrapping around Danny's cock, unable to see it through the whitewater created by the hot tub jets, but able to feel its thickness, its length, how it throbbed even hotter than the water they were sitting in.

Danny's right hand disappeared into the water, too, and Steve soon felt his own cock surrounded by Danny's fingers gripping him tightly. Slowly Danny began to stroke, pulling Steve's foreskin all the way up and over the head of his cock, thumb teasing the slit as it disappeared under the skin, then slowly moving it all back into place on the way back down.

Steve thrust hard. Danny's hand moved faster.

 _Steve's_ hand moved faster.

"Oh," Danny breathed, rocking into Steve's grip as Steve tried to pump his hips without throwing Danny off his pace…or his lap.

Steve felt it building, the familiar tingling in his balls, his cock swelling in Danny's hand as it moved faster and faster…the sensations traveling like lightning, shooting from his balls to his toes, simultaneously up through the core of his being until it made his whole body shudder with the intensity and Danny wasn't in a much better place, doing his damndest to keep stroking as their bodies tried to take over and thrust uncontrollably into hands that wanted to milk both cocks dry.

It took only three more passes along the length of Steve's cock for him to lose it completely, coming with a shout as he threw his head back and spilled into the churning waters. It took nothing more than that for Danny to follow, surprisingly quiet with his eyes squeezed shut and his mouth hanging open like he couldn't breathe and didn't want to try.

When Steve opened his eyes and righted his head, it was to find a _very_ sleepy Danno watching him through half-closed eyes. There was a little smile on his face, a wary one, like maybe he still thought Steve would suddenly realize what they'd done and bolt.

Steve's arms felt heavy, his legs were falling asleep from Danny's weight and he knew his skin must be prune-like by now. But he felt sated. He felt full. He felt…happy. So he forced his right arm up, dripping hand plastering itself to the stubble that was growing in on Danny's cheek, and smiled broadly.

"You're mine now, Danny. All mine."

Danny ducked his head. "Always have been," he mumbled, then bit his lip.

Steve wrapped his arms around him as a warmth that wasn't coming from the hot tub filled him, enveloped him. "Come on," he whispered into Danny's ear. "We'll only need one of these beds tonight."

Danny stiffly pushed himself off his knees, waited as Steve rose and stepped out of the tub, then followed suit. Steve went around the corner into the bathroom and grabbed two towels. He handed one to his partner when he came back out, all the while toweling his own hair, wiping the majority of the water on his chest, arms and legs away. When he'd finished as well as he cared to, he looked up to find Danny starting at him.

Steve stared right back.

It was the first time they'd seen each other naked head to toe, and while it was still dark as hell in the room, they could each make out enough to get the general idea.

Towels were tossed to the floor. The men made their way to the bed Danny had insisted was his, got on either side of it, pulled back the duvet, blanket and sheet in unison. Fluffed the pillows. Stopped. Looked at each other.

"We're really doing this," Danny stated.

"I hope so," Steve answered as he climbed into his side of the bed. "That wasn't nearly enough for me."

Danny scooted into bed and the two of them moved until their heads were on the same pillow, noses nearly touching. "Think it ever will be?"

Steve leaned in and kissed him softly, chastely. "I'm not leaving you," he said firmly as he pulled away. "Never, Danny."

"I didn't think Matt would ever leave either, but he did."

Ah. The heart of the matter.

"I'm not going to turn criminal," Steve tried to assure him, threading his and Danny's legs together.

"Any more than you already are on a daily basis, you mean," Danny corrected.

Steve snorted. "Yeah, any more than that. And I'm not ever going to make you choose between me and justice."

Danny took in a shaky breath, eyelids closing. As he exhaled, Steve continued, "Only thing is, what about your folks?"

The smile that came over Danny's face was genuine. "They're simple people. If I love you, _they_ love you."

Then he seemed to suddenly realize what he'd said. His eyelids popped open.

"Do you, Danny?" Steve asked. His heart had stopped beating altogether, like even _it_ was holding its breath waiting to hear the answer.

"I…" Danny whispered, then closed his mouth and swallowed hard.

"Because I realized today that _I_ love _you_ , Danny Williams. So, you know…in case you were wondering."

With that, Steve smiled, closed his eyes and figured he'd just let his statement sink in.

It had felt so good to say.

Danny's skin had felt so good against his.

Danny's body tensing, reacting to Steve's touches and the sounds he made.

The sounds _Danny_ made in response to Steve's ministrations.

And then without a shadow of a doubt, he knew it had sunk in, because Danny was instantly all up in his space, burying his face in Steve's shoulder like he was trying to crawl inside Steve from neck to legs.

Steve laughed as he rolled onto his back and tucked Danny into a one-arm embrace. "You're definitely the bigger goof," he teased, running a hand through Danny's still-wet hair.

"I love you," Danny blurted out, like he wasn't sure if he should, but couldn't keep it from happening.

"Good," Steve murmured, placing a kiss to Danny's temple. "Then we're both on the same page."

Danny nuzzled into Steve's neck, wrapping himself as thoroughly around his partner as he could before settling in for the night. "We always are, aren't we?" he asked sleepily.

"Yeah," Steve replied, followed by a huge yawn. "We always are."

Steve found himself smiling as he drifted off to sleep.

He'd started out five months ago wanting a partner to help him solve his dad's murder.

He'd wound up with a partner in every sense of the word.

He'd started out just wanting to be there for Danny on this Trip From Hell, to support his best friend.

He'd wound up with a boyfriend…a lover…maybe even the love of his life, in his arms.

The love of his life.

Yeah. That was exactly who Danny was.

His smile stayed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your comments and kudos!


End file.
